I'm hoping to put together 12 players for this by Saturday.

Well, we three-manned the trash before Mantikora and it was noticeably more difficult of course. Mantikora has about 2.9x the health of live which means burning like we do now is out of the window, can we expect these kind of health increases across the board @ZOS_Finn?

I know for sure we'll be in there once we get our character copies. .

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, what are you looking for from the new Veteran Sanctum? Is this supposed to be on par with Veteran Maw? Midway between Sanctum live and Veteran Maw live? Info like that would probably help us give you better feedback.

I would also be interested in knowing what the difficulty goal for the normal version is. Same as live? Same as normal Maw?

@ZOS_Finn

Veteran.

Cool, so Ozara will one shot through block?

ZOS_Finn wrote: »

We want Sanctum Ophidia to provide a challenge similar to Maw of Lorkhaj. The mechanics haven't changed drastically so there isn't much of a learning curve in that regard but we would like for the challenge to be similar. What we want to avoid is the disparity that currently exists between the Trials and Maw of Lorkhaj.

The goal for normal is to provide a fun and entertaining challenge much like Normal Maw of Lorkhaj.

@ZOS_Finn any plans to do this for AA and HRC?
I'd love a version of AA with the challenge of Maw, the boss fights in there would be so fun with forced mechanics and stronger battles. AA was a really great dungeon designed well.

Same with HRC


P.S a lot of guilds i know are very busy in Maw trying to complete it still. I think crown store heroes are going to get together this weekend for a try at sanctum though

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

ZOS_Finn wrote: »

Hey Folks, we know its tough to get 12 players together but... we would LOVE to see some feedback on the changes to Sanctum Ophidia (Normal and/or Vet).

Perhaps the feedback is, we absolutely need a trial group finder different from group finder.
Perhaps a sign up list with dates and each week unique in each major town where a trial is located (just to not overwhelm the servers).


Tent specifying one trial (at first) and if I sign the book in one town, it won't carry over to another town.
This concept would allow people to set a trial looking for others to sign up.
It also would allow ppl to sign up to be picked up.

Options.
Trial name.
Vet / normal
Role


This will reset every Sunday or Monday.

One sign up to start in the same town of the trial zone so Belkarth forCraglorn.

I don't expect you all to whip up a grouping tool from scratch for 12 mans but I think it's simple to have a book looking UI that lists name so we can invite or message player/account for invite.

Names will only appear in book when players are online. (I know that sounds weird) but this is so there isn't a list to sort through of 1,000 names who aren't avilable.


Basically this will look like the guild UI on consoles but the tent and boom are the animations very similar to the undaunted.

I'd ask that if you do this, that there be some vendors about to craft food, merchants for repairs, would gems



(REALISTIC FEEDBACK)
-absent of a suggestion.
We need a PTS grouping tool to test this for ya thy just grips anyone and go. We can do templates so no biggie

Sorry, but I personally think a trials group finder is a horrible idea. In my experience, the majority of the players who pug are simply not that good. Most lack an understanding of mechanics and, of even more detriment, a competent build and/or understanding of how to best utilize their character. Also, plenty who que up do so with no desire to use communication tools and/or work as a team. This will equate to teams wiping...which will equate to frustration with the grouping tool and the trial...which will equate to calls for nerfs on the forums...which will equate to ZOS catering to whiners and nerfing content.

Simply, join a trials guild. Msg players on leaderboards and ask if their guild is accepting applicants, if they have a progressive team, or if they have a partnership with feeder guild(s). Get in with others who want to farm the trials and you wil have more fun and be much more successful.

haven't been to pts but the sets that drop in SO seem to be great for Stam builds and situation for magicka builds. I'm going off of Deltia and Sypher's posts on youtube. Are there other sets that drop and is there an OFFICIAL place to see what sets do drop.

Essiaga wrote: »

NBrookus wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

ZOS_Finn wrote: »

We want Sanctum Ophidia to provide a challenge similar to Maw of Lorkhaj. The mechanics haven't changed drastically so there isn't much of a learning curve in that regard but we would like for the challenge to be similar. What we want to avoid is the disparity that currently exists between the Trials and Maw of Lorkhaj.

The goal for normal is to provide a fun and entertaining challenge much like Normal Maw of Lorkhaj.

Personally, I was hoping this would not be the case. The game to me has a problem with almost all instanced PvE content being either fairly easy or super elite difficulty. The gulf between Vet Maelstrom and Vet Maw compared to everything else is enormous. I was hoping Vet Sanctum might be a middle ground. And that maybe AA and HRC would be redone in the future and fall at different spots in the difficulty curve.

And with vCOA, vICP, and vWGT being reduced in difficulty soon, there is really going to be a dearth of content for very good, but not necessarily elite, players. It just seems like there is content that almost everybody can complete, and content that almost nobody can complete, and nothing in between.

I agree that we need more "intermediate" content. I thought vCoA was a good fit in this department. It has been out for a long time and it's reasonable to get nerfed so more players can complete it, but there's no replacement content at that difficultly level. Maybe normal ICP and WGT are in this range now that they have been nerfed?

That said, normal MoL is not terribly hard. The biggest issue I have had was with bugs on the final boss. And as more people complete it, it will easier to have a mixed group of experienced players and new players go through it.

I would also welcome a range of difficulty in the trials -- both for normal and vet modes. VMA may be "aspirational" content, but the tools need to be in place for players to get there.

Yeah ... perhaps DSA could be rescaled ...

what's going to happen when ZOS increases from cp 160 to the next level increase? Is this going to be the constant future of ESO? Content comes and goes and then has to be re-scaled to be relevant again? Seems like a terrible plan and waste of resources that should be going towards balancing PVP and PVE and the classes ... Battle Spirit is BS.

Would LOVE to have DSA scaled! @ZOS_Finn -- pretty please tell us this is coming? Next DLC? With scaled up Footman gear, Footman's weapons (so we can run Footman/Black Rose because losing Bracing is awful) and Master's Weapons?

I'm going to guess that part of why they have only scaled SO for now is that the code had to be re-written to add scaling to previous non-scaled content. We also have content now in the newest DLCs that scale everything and shouldn't have a max level. If so, the underlying scaling code work has been done, they will continue to scale up, and it will be easier to scale other stuff in the future.

Now it's a matter of applying this to other content as designer & dev time is allocated and what pace they want to roll out renewed trial content.

So, we just finished Normal Sanctum Ophidia.

As some general information, my Guild is primarily a social Guild with lots of solo players who are long-term fans of the Elder Scrolls franchise. There are a small number of us who run the Pledges every day, but only 4-10 of us. We've started to run Trials only since cross-faction grouping came in.

We have a couple of high DPS players, but are not min-maxers by any stretch of the imagination. e.g. my main is an Imperial Sorcerer Healer. I have a Breton Templar Healer, but I honestly prefer playing/healing with my Sorc.

• Did you play the Normal or Veteran version of this Trial?
  Normal. Here is our group composition:
  
  We had 3 players who had completed Sanctum Ophidia on Live, a further 4 players who have attempted SO on Live but not completed it, and 2 players who have never been there. I am not certain but believe we were all v16 on Live.
  
  
• How did running this Trial feel compared to how it is currently on the Live megaservers?
  Oh Divines, it was amazing! We actually got past the Mantikora for the first time ever!! (Previous best on Live was 40%)
  
  Here are some general comments:
  1. First of all, confusion. Although the group was set to Normal, on entering the dungeon we were given both quests - The Oldest Ghost and The Oldest Ghost (Veteran). I'm pretty sure we should only have been given the Normal quest.
  2. Start of the dungeon seemed identical to how it is on Live, complete with the horrible graphical lag as you fight the first trash mob while walking up the slope. (Too many lightning explosions for a lot of graphics cards, I think).
  3. There are no adds in the Mantikora room - were there supposed to be? It was pleasant not to spend 5 minutes on that trash pull before tackling the boss.
  4. The Mantikora did not start to throw spears until 20% HP. Again, this was so much easier than having to try to coordinate and move around them.
  5. There was no hole to fall down. Much easier mechanics for a relatively new/casual Trial group - no need to split into three groups of DPS, no need for a second Tank to handle the enemy below.
  6. The Mantikora did the "popcorn" attack much more than on Live, probably because there weren't any spears.
  7. So we actually got to the next part of the Trial, which we'd never seen before. The Trolls and Overchargers weren't too hard for us, although we were confused that the poison can't be purged with Purifying Ritual or Cleanse. Is this intentional?
  8. We got over the bridge with only one fatality.
  9. Since we were short of numbers, we all went into the left room and then all went into the right room. No real problems.
  10. Holes proved to be more dangerous than trolls.
  11. The lamia boss, Ozara. Mechanics here caused us some pain. It was very confusing to get a message flash on the screen "Remove bolts from allies" without any indication what this meant. Several of us were trying to hit the synergy button even though no synergy was indicated, because it SOUNDED LIKE a synergy. Maybe change the wording? Like during the Flesh Sculptor fight when your ally is knocked down and you have to interrupt the boss - "Your ally is being tenderised!"? Maybe reword this to something like "Your ally needs a bolt removed!".
  12. Eventually we realised that you needed to go RIGHT UP TO the ally before the X and synergy appears. We wiped in this room twice before figuring out that you could kill the adds before going near the boss. It was not obvious to us that we could do this since in previous parts of the Trial, adds continued to spawn while fighting the boss. Some sort of tweak here would help.
  13. Apparently the version of SO on Live has more lamia after Ozara, but this version did not.
  14. We found the banner for Hard Mode was present. This was confusing.
  15. On the final boss (The Serpent), we couldn't decide initially if we should focus on the adds or the totems. All three were present - Buff Totem, Pull Totem, Cursed Totem. We had to fight lamia and mantikoras (mantikorae?) along with The Serpent. I think we wiped once but I'm not sure what caused it since I was already dead. Something about candles?
  16. We completed the Veteran version of the quest instead of the Normal version. Proof:
      
  17. It took just over an hour for us to complete the Trial with no previous experience, a team of only 9 players, and no attempts to use Rapid/Retreating Maneuver to speed ourselves up. This seems about right.
  
  BUGS:
  1. We were given both quests - The Oldest Ghost and The Oldest Ghost (Veteran).
  2. Some rooms were completely black upon entering, e.g.
     
     
     I had to go so far into the room before I could see anything that I was in danger of pulling the boss. My character is the one with the flaming Nord staff in the Rumare costume.
     
     
     Certain other rooms were also black like this for several players, but they were all side rooms.
     
  3. Several of us experienced a loss of combat sounds at various points during both this trial and Hel Ra Citadel. We could still hear our characters going "huh" and "argh" but not the sound cues which signal attacks from enemies. Combat sound loss seemed to vary from room to room.
  4. The Sacred Banner for Hard Mode was present even though it was Normal.
  5. We completed The Oldest Ghost (Veteran) instead of The Oldest Ghost. Reported as bug 160430-001820.
  
  
• Did you find any issues in regards to balance?
  Not really. The experienced players said that some of the bosses were easier while others were harder, because you actually had to use the mechanics rather than just burn them with DPS. As "non-elite" players, we prefer to use mechanics where possible.
  
  
• Did you like the rewards you received?
  We got Dreugh King Slayer, Elegant, and Nightmare items at CP 160 rank, purple. These seemed to have random traits rather than optimised traits - I got one Elegant piece with Well-fitted (ugh!) and someone else got an Elegant piece with Prosperous (ugh!!). It looks like the Elegant set might be useful again, though. I know the Tank was happy to get a Nightmare piece.
  
  Also the standard Viper and Infalliable Aether items that you'd expect to get from SO. These were also purple and CP 160 rank.
  
  I was neither very excited nor horribly unexcited to get these items . I liked that they were Bind on Equip rather than Bind on Pickup, so we could swap them among ourselves or sell them.
  
  
• Do you have any other general feedback?
  1. We did not find any "shiny words" (books/notes) for Eidetic Memory even though I was looking out for them. This saddens me. I am unsure if we were just unobservant, or the notes did not spawn for some reason.
  2. I am not sure if the feeding pit does anything in Normal mode. We didn't try.

pretzl wrote: »

@baratron the poison mechanic on the bridge/throughout SO that you mention is an intended feature of the trial. It cannot be purged and will spread to any player standing on the poisonous circle.

Well, we knew how it spreads from player to player because that's how it works in the version of Sanctum Ophidia on Live. But we didn't know whether it was supposed to be purgeable in Normal mode. Sometimes effects are different between the 'easy' and the 'hard' version. Take for example Allene Pellingare's summoned bats in Wayrest Sewers - in normal Wayrest the bats can be CCed, but not in Veteran Wayrest.

Thanks @baratron for the writeup, was a fun run with you all (Aelandril here), and I want to elaborate a bit more on some of the mechanics/combat changes that I noticed:

(Note this is for normal mode, and may contain spoilers if you care about that sort of thing.)

* The five minute trash pull before Possessed Mantikora is gone. After killing the mob at the pool, the boss will summon itself.

Possessed Mantikora

• The boss does his "green explosion" move much more often now. The number of people affected by this attack is still 2, the number of explosions per person is still 3.
• The "black hole" phase has been removed, no need to split and fight the Serpent's Image below, no need to move and avoid the spear throw. No enrage timer on the boss now.
• The AOE room wide stomp is still here, blocking is still required.
• At 20% the boss will start throwing spears, they will still stun and leave a damaging green AOE on impact, I don't know if they disappear by themselves because the boss was executed quite quickly at that point.

Trash mobs/Bridge Gauntlet
*Trash mob numbers have been reduced, less mobs in total but individual mob health has perhaps increased as there are more bannermen now.
* Poison spitting statues are now mostly removed.
*The new bannerman is called the Serpent's Fang and is a archer type mob.

• He does the frontal cone Poison Spray move (red cone, high poison damage with heavy DOT afterwards).
• He casts Taking Aim/Snipe, which may one shot most people, and can be interrupted. (if you've fought any Craglorn mobs you will know what this is)

Scaled Court Overcharger

• He now uses his Shock Aura move much more often (the one where a shock aura surrounds a player and they have to move away from the rest of the group). We had one Overcharger alive and he basically maintained AOEs on three of us throughout the fight. These bannermen might become a higher priority than the Trolls themselves. Damage per tick has been reduced, but has been compensated with the larger number of AOEs active at once. Stacking is not recommended unless your heals are very good.
• He also periodically summons continuous lightning strikes around a player (think the lightning attack from the vCOH colossus boss, except it follows one player around. These do hurt, much more than the shock aura, and players targeted should move to avoid being struck, preferably away from the rest of the group.

Rockheaver Troll

• Not much has changed, poison still spreads and cannot be purged, we noticed that the Troll usually poisons that one that holds aggro on it, usually the tank. So keep away from the tank lol.
• Troll also does a ground pound that staggers people and does moderate damage, should be avoided.
• Rock toss also stuns people, avoid it.

Stonebreaker

• Has been buffed slightly, when he pounds the ground to send the shockwaves it's now a much larger circle AOE instead of a cone.
• Adds come much more often, usually Overchargers and War-Priests. Straight burning the boss might not be recommended as three adds spawn every 10-20% ish (not too sure) of the boss health.
• Boss regenerates health a bit faster, but not too difficult to focus down once all adds are killed. War-Priest also drop healing circles that heal the boss so the group might want to kill those first.

Ozara

• She now pulls with a large group of banner men and trolls, mix of Fangs, War-Priests and Overchargers.
• However, the adds will not respawn after they are killed, unlike live where the adds spawn continously through the fight. After killing the adds focusing her down is simple.
• Her mechanics are largely the same, she will stun random party members and players will have to free their teammates using the "remove bolt" synergy. I think this will be more important now, since the Fangs and Overchargers lay down some pretty serious AOE spam and getting stunned in the middle of a Poison Spray on top of having an Shock Aura on you isn't fun >.<)

The Serpent

• The poison cone cleave still hits hard, tank should still face it away from the group.
• The room wide poison AOE stack-and-heal does less damage now, some basic mitigation like Barrier plus heal spam should be sufficient.
• Totems still spawn, Pull Totem, mana bomb totem, buff totem. The effects are still the same, but I think the mana bomb totem has had its effect toned down abit. The damage dealt by the mana bomb is now half your current magicka value. If your health is more than half your max magicka you could just take it, not recommended though.
• However, the lamias that spawn don't seem to explode when they die anymore. I'm not sure if they can clear the totems since they don't explode, but some groups could try this out.
• The pink bubble mechanic has been nerfed, it's not an instant kill anymore but will instead bring you to really low health. Picking up the bubble will still protect you. It also happens less often, our fight only saw him do it once or twice. When he explodes, all totems in the room will disappear as well.
• Mantikoras only start spawning at 40% ish health, they still need to be burned down as they can enrage stomp.
• Final death attack does less damage, pink bubbles will still protect you, last minute Manti still has to be burned.

Overall I like the rebalancing. There is a more natural difficulty and complexity ramp up from beginning to end, early bosses are more simple, later bosses are now harder. The smaller number of mobs, but increased mob health leads to less stack and burn scenarios. Mechanics changes are nice, less of a dps/hps race now which I really appreciate. Updated sets and loot were also nice, although the trials sets in general could use some buffs to make them as desirable as the monster helm sets. Overall balance felt better, less one-shots and mob swarms overall.

Compared to live this seems much more manageable and fun, but the increased mob health gets a little bit tedious after a while, when I see waves of banner men I just roll my eyes since I've just finished killing one set and now I have to do the exact same thing AGAIN. I don't know, it just feels like unnecessary padding to me. Increase the mob health to prevent boss burning, but not too much so that the fights become tedious. (this is what I feel about MOL as well)

Streaming now!